Sunday, April 09, 2017

Gregg Chadwick's "Revenant"
Jeffrey Carlson Reporting
Editor, Fine Art Today Specters from a distant past ‐‐ or perhaps another level of existence ‐‐ people the nostalgic and visionary works of Gregg Chadwick.

Widely recognized for his figure paintings and cityscapes, Gregg Chadwick presents his latest work in an exhibition titled "Revenant," soon to be unveiled at San Francisco's Sandra Lee Gallery. The exhibition opens July 1, and the opening reception will be held July 10, from 5:30‐7:30 p.m.

In viewing Chadwick's paintings, it feels as though we are viewing these people and places through a screen of nostalgic vision. In passages the works are blurred and vague, suggesting forms more than representing them. This lack of definition suggests the uncertainty and vagueness of a lost memory or a fleeting dream; we can picture its shape but are often left grasping at its details.

Chadwick's process, too, encourages reflection on the simultaneously fleeting and lasting nature of life's experiences. In each painting Chadwick creates a kind of palimpsest, layering transparent pigments and painting over the earlier image. In this way the past is built into the paintings themselves.

The Time Between, a show of recent paintings by Gregg Chadwick, is now on view at Sandra Lee Gallery in San Francisco.In these paintings Chadwick works lightly and suggestively, as if in the haze of a fragmented vision. Some figures are located in recognizable time and space, like three young women who stroll an open road, one texting and another snooping. In other works the subject is far more enigmatic, the spaces indeterminate, and the figures distorted or mirrored.The conceptual foundation for Chadwick’s recent work comes from a study of time as perceived by the ancient Greeks, who categorized it in two distinct ways. Chronos denoted sequential time, measurable in units, whereas kairos conveyed the significance of a moment and was qualitative in nature. A kairos was indeterminate in length and potentially great in importance, as in “an appointed time.”Chadwick’s stated intention with his works on time is to “break down the illusions of linear time passing and expose the coexistence of past, present and future.”

Gregg Chadwick, “I Canti (The Cantos),” oil on linen, 80 x 60 in.

Gregg Chadwick, “The Time Between,” oil on canvas, 24 x 18 in.

The artist’s conceptual vision neatly dovetails with the goals of the broader contemporary realist art movement. Chadwick paints scenes that are representational yet imaginative; they are, at one and the same time, rooted in tangible existence and removed from it. His figures are real and unreal. Engaged in everyday activities or detached from their surroundings, we see them as women and men of the world and as specters of superhuman existence.

Gregg Chadwick, “Three Secrets,” oil on canvas, 30 x 24 in.

Based in Santa Monica, where he paints in an old airplane hangar, Chadwick has shown at galleries and museums nationally and internationally. He earned his BFA from UCLA and his MFA from NYU. Chadwick has held notable solo exhibitions at the Manifesta Maastricht Gallery (Maastricht, Netherlands), AD Space 2000 (Tokyo, Japan), and the Lisa Coscino Gallery (Pacific Grove, California), and he has participated in group shows at the Sandra Lee Gallery, Arena 1 Gallery (Santa Monica, California), and the Arts Club of Washington (Washington, D.C.).Chadwick writes a blog, Speed of Life, in which he examines art’s intersection with society. He also frequently posts recently completed work to his Flickr account, which can be viewed here.The Time Between will be on view through March 30, 2013. An opening reception will be held the evening of March 7, from 5:30‐7:30 p.m. Sandra Lee Gallery is located at 251 Post Street, Suite 310, in San Francisco.For more information, visit www.greggchadwick.com and http://sandraleegallery.com.This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a new weekly e‐newsletter from Fine ArtConnoisseur magazine. Filed Under :Locations : California, Milano, Monica, San Francisco, Santa Monica, Tokyo, Washington, D.c. People : Gregg Chadwick, Painting Time

Santa Monica-based artist Gregg Chadwick has been painting for three decades. His current studio is an old airplane hangar where the flurry of takeoffs and landings on the runway outside seems to creep into Chadwick’s paintings as he explores movement and travel within his light-filled paintings. His current series of paintings is entitled ‘Mystery Train’ and evokes the railways of America that Chadwick says run in his blood. His grandfather worked as a fireman, stoking coal in steam engines before advancing to train engineer on the Jersey Central Line. Chadwick often says that family gatherings brought the rhythms of the rails home. The sounds of railroad workers echoed in the music that Chadwick’s relatives played in the shadows of the train lines outside. For Chadwick and many others such as writer Greil Marcus, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, and musicians Junior Parker and Elvis Presley, the enduring mythos of America and its legacy is wrapped in the blues notes of the song ‘Mystery Train’

Chadwick's thoughts on the intersection of art, culture, and politics can be found on his blog, Speed of Life.

Chadwick's flickr page which is often updated with new finished paintings and work in progress is at: